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Failing fundraiser for Forest Grove special needs students saved when Pacific University graduate students step in

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Kathy DiCarlo, a speech-language pathologist at Tom McCall Upper Elementary, recently received funding for games to help special needs students learn communication skills. (Laura Frazier/The Oregonian)

“Have you ever thought what it might be like to not be able to communicate effectively with others?” she asked in the proposal. “That is the challenge facing my students. I have few materials to address their needs.”

Some of the materials DiCarlo asked for are interactive games. One game helps students understand basic questions. Another uses photos to teach vocabulary words for items found in a school setting. The sustainable project will benefit students for years, DiCarlo said, as all special needs students in the district will attend Tom McCall for grades five and six.

“It was kind of like a snowball,” DiCarlo said. “I’m just really touched by how everyone rallied around these kids.”

Amanda Stead, an assistant professor with the department, had noticed the proposal around Christmas time. She’s never met DiCarlo, but instantly saw the connection between what her graduate students were learning and DiCarlo's goals.

Stead donated money herself and then shared the proposal on social media sites and with other faculty members.

Also the advisor of Pacific University chapter of NSSLHA, the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association,the student club for the department, Stead then told students about the project after winter break. Almost all of the 60 students in the masters program participate in NSSLHA, Stead said.

Cassedy Sullivan, treasurer of NSSLHA, said the club decided to match whatever students donated with funding from the general account. The goal was to raise $500 total. The club put an explanation of the project and an envelope for money in each student’s mailbox.

Students simply donated what they could, Sullivan said.

“This is a school down the street from us,” she said. “We’re trying to empower people to communicate, we have to be listening to their needs and finding ways we can help.”

The project resonated with students, Stead said, many of whom work in local schools.

“To see a situation in our community where students did not have any primary means of communication really struck home for them,” she said. “It seemed like an easy way to make a huge difference in the community.”

DiCarlo said about seven students will use the new materials this year. Her idea is to have students rotate through the station a few times a week and focus their sessions on individual needs.